5-Paragraph Essay: How to Write It Properly

5 paragraph essay outline

You may have good or even satisfactory grades, but you can still admit to Harvard. Not the best TOEFL and GMAT grades can lead you to Stanford. This happens often. The whole thing is a correctly written essay that shows your goals and ambitions and reveals your talent and potential. Usually, you need to write one or two essays for admission.

In 2020, there are more than 20 million students in the United States, and all of them face different challenges every day at colleges and universities. Tasks such as writing various essays are difficult for students.

An essay is the most memorable part of all the documents you submit for admission

Ivy League admissions officers

Through an essay, the admissions committee tries to see you as a person, what you really are. Thousands of applicants have the same scores for exams, grades and it is an essay that sets you apart and reveals your personality. In addition, the essay shows how you can submit yourself, analyze information, communicate with other people in writing. When they read an essay, the admissions’ office staff not only learn information about you and judge you by grammar structures and language units used, but also pay attention to what you said and what ideas were presented in your essay.

There are six main types of 5 paragraph academic essays. I suggest paying your attention and familiarize yourself with each of the types before taking the exam:

  • Compare and Contrast;
  • Expository;
  • Persuasive;
  • Argumentative;
  • Cause and Effect;
  • Narrative.

Let us pay our attention to such type of academic paperwork as 5 paragraph essay.

Definition of 5-Paragraph Essay

This is one of the most frequently asked educational tasks that students face when entering college. The writing of such a task is most often found in tests such as TOEFL, IELTS and SAT.

Keep in mind that all examinations often limit you in time. Based on this, you should be prepared to write academic papers. To do this, you must be familiar with the structure of the 5 paragraph essay on any given topic. This will be a huge advantage allows you to complete the task. Writing a similar task gives you the absolute right to choose a topic and various formats. But if your college professor gives you a home task to create such an essay, take a look at what our professional writing service has to offer.

To write an excellent 5 paragraph essay, you should highlight such key points for yourself:

  • topics;
  • outline;
  • format;
  • template;
  • rubric;
  • example;
  • prompts.

So before the start, you need to build the proper structure of the essay. First, you need to choose the most interesting topics. It can be 5 paragraph essay on bullying or climate change, 5 paragraph compare and contrast essay or why college education is important to me 5 paragraph essay for example.

After that, you should compose the outline for 5 paragraph essay and decide what format your essay will have. Find an appropriate template (or get the one below) and prompts and a few the most suitable examples for a 5 paragraph essay for this assignment. Using these tips you can easily differentiate what essay rubric your task will be attached.

5-Paragraph Essay Structure

5 paragraph essay example

First Paragraph: The Introduction

How long should an introduction be for a 5 paragraph essay? The first paragraph is the most important point. It is he who shows the topic and what to expect from the assignment. This paragraph should contain 3-5 sentences.

The introduction is the most important paragraph, because it sets the rhythm and soul, so to speak, for the whole essay. This moment also sets the tone. Pay particular attention to this if you want to attract the attention and interest of the reader. The best way to distinguish yourself when writing an introduction is:

  • A brief description of the main idea in one sentence. You can usually use a hint to write an essay or a question to formulate this sentence;
  • Summarize the idea of ​​what you want to say about the main idea;

The Second, Third and Fourth Paragraphs: Auxiliary parts

The remaining three paragraphs are the main part of the essay. They should be filled with details, confirmed and interesting facts, examples and specific statistics. All these constituent points of the main part of the essay should fully correspond to the thesis that you contributed to the introductory part of your academic work.

For each item that you listed in your introduction, write a brief description and, if possible, try to fit this into one paragraph. This little 5 paragraph essay outline worksheet will help you do this:

  • First, write a thematic sentence that expresses your general point of view. This should be the first sentence of your paragraph.
  • Then write your argument or why you feel the sentence is topic.
  • Second, describe your evidence (facts, quotes, examples, and statistics) to show your argument in a better light.
  • Repeat the same steps for the rest of the quest.

To facilitate your task, which for many seems an overwhelming task, use 5 paragraph essay graphic organizers. Create a layout for your main paragraphs and this will by itself eliminate the need to write paragraph transitions.

The Fifth Paragraph: Finale Part

This paragraph should be up to 5 sentences. The final paragraph should be the result of all the written academic work and summarize the essay. Most often, this part of the assignment is the most difficult to write. In your conclusion, you should reformulate the thesis in such a way that it can be easily connected with the main part of the essay in the sentence, which explains how each paragraph is related to the thesis at the beginning. Your last sentence should express your main idea in a convincing and understandable manner. Do not forget that here you can no longer submit any new information.

Additional Helpful Tips

  • Do not try to be someone else. You will not succeed in deceiving the admissions officers who have seen thousands of essays and will immediately see that your description of yourself does not coincide with the rest of the documents.
  • Do not take too complicated topics and ideas for an essay. A lot of essays come to Harvard, where students try to show that they understand complex ideas and topics when in reality this is not at all the case.
  • Do not use common cliches, they show that you cannot express ideas yourself.
  • Do not use a lot of quotes. It gives the impression that you do not have your own opinion.
  • Give clear examples. Do not just write that you are an absolute leader. Describe situations, give examples where you demonstrated leadership skills.
  • Finish your essay so that the admissions officer remembers you. You can complete your ideas in such a way that they can think about it.
  • Check the essay many times, ask for help from friends, relatives. You can write to students of your chosen university and ask them to help, suggest ideas or amendments to your essay. Students recommend contacting two or three editors for help.
  • To make sure again that there are no errors or typos in the essay, there is a good technique – read the essay from the end. When you read from the end, you do not focus on mistakes, but your focus is on words and writing. Check any words you are not sure of the spelling in the dictionary.
  • Count the words. If you should write 250 word essay, do not write more than 10 to 20 words beyond the established limit.

Best of luck with your essay!
If you have questions or you need help with your academic paperwork writing you may always count on our professionals.